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38 years, 3 months, and 16 days

Posted on Friday, February 28th, 2020

Dave!When it comes to my own death, I'm completely at peace. I've been on this earth 53 years... almost 54 years now. I've done my best to better my world with my time, money, and heart. I've explored the planet and fell in love with its peoples. If my number comes up tomorrow, I am fine with it. I am sick at the thought of my cats not having me around to take care of them, but I am fine with it.

I've had friends and family in my life that mean everything to me and have given my existence meaning, so I'm good to go.

But when it comes to those same friends and family dying? Not so much.

A year ago today, I lost one of my oldest, dearest friends. It destroyed me. It continues to destroy me. So many days I think back to the insane stuff we did... the many, many great times we had... the adventures that defined our relationship... those moments that he and I shared which only we two can ever understand... and the weight of it all crushes me. I want to scream at the world what an amazing person he was so they remember him like I do and they know what we've lost. I want everybody to hurt like I hurt.

But all I can do is walk through my memories of him, share sorrow with friends who knew him, and keep him alive in my heart.

And on my arm...

Getting a tattoo of a semicolon inked under the word YOU in NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO, THERE YOU ARE that's on my arm.

A tattoo of a semicolon inked under the word YOU in NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO, THERE YOU ARE that's on my arm.

I don't know that seeing this every day will make things better or worse, but it will definitely bring a smile to my face when I remember him, so there's that.

And I'm in good company...

Me with three friends who are also sporting semicolon tattoos.

Project Semicolon was started by Amy Bleuel and is explained on their site thusly: "A semicolon is used when an author could’ve chosen to end their sentence, but chose not to. The author is you, and the sentence is your life." In later years it has become a symbol of solidarity for those who have survived the loss of someone due to depression, suicide, and other mental health issues.

For both my life and the life I've lost, it's sadly apt.

I wanted quite badly to end my life my sophomore year of high school, planned it down to the smallest detail, reached the day it was all going to end; I chose not to.

When I was caring for my mom in midst of her dementia I woke up every day wanting to escape, and was researching on the internet the best way to end it all in a way which would least impact my friends and family; I chose not to.

When I made the agonizing choice to move my mom into a care facility, failure consumed me and I sunk so low that I called a skydiving company to see if my certification was still good so I could take one final dive; I chose not to.

After my mom died I felt truly done with life and started getting my affairs in order so I could just make the pain finally, finally come to an end with the six bottles of sleeping pills I bought at six different stores two weeks after she passed; I chose not to.

Suicide has been living in my head and clawing at my soul for 38 years, 3 months, and 16 days; yet one day at a time I choose not to.

But I still struggle.

I think too many of us do.

After Robin Williams died I wrote about depression, a subject I am intimately familiar with, and have blogged about more times than I can count. It feels like my entire life has been spent battling depression, and those days before the battle started feel so distant and unnatural as to be unreal. I sometimes wonder if I dreamed my depression-free childhood because I wanted something to cling to when things are at their worst. It just seems impossible that there was ever a time when I wasn't struggling. When I wasn't broken. When I wasn't confronting the barrage of lies that depression whispers in my ear every waking hour of every day... and weighs on my mind all night, every night.

Depression has become such a part of me that, at times, it feels as though it defines me. I guess I'm lucky that it doesn't. Though I don't know that I would call myself "lucky" that I've managed to hold on this long. It feels more like work than luck. I've had to put serious work into the job of living.

Fortunately I've had help.

My family saved me. My friends saved me. Working for a charity which saves others saved me. Having to feed my cats each morning really saved me. And, because of all of them, I choose to save me and continue my life sentence.

And hold in my heart those whose pain cut so deep that they could not.

Jeep

I love and miss you every day.

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Categories: DaveLife 2020Click To It: Permalink
   

Comments

  1. Michelle Carole Phillips says:

    I’m so sorry, Dave. I lost my husband when he was 53. He didn’t want to die. Ever. Under any circumstances. It seems so unfair that a man who loved life got ripped from it. But he didn’t end. He still exists. In the memories and dreams of those he loved. He visits me, sometimes, in my dreams. They are precious. Like he was. And those you loved still exist in you. They visit you in your dreams, even if you can’t remember it. They exist in your memories. In your love. Life is a cycle. All that is born must die. So that others can be born or reborn. We are all part of the cycle. It doesn’t end. And neither do we. So remember them, love them, miss them, dream of them. They are a part of us now. And they deserve to be remembered.

  2. claire says:

    Oh, Dave, I’m so sorry for your loss and for all of your struggles which are all too familiar.

    I know you have comment moderation but you’re “Nobody cares!” that showed up hit me particularly with this post.

    I care! I’m so glad you’re still around even though we haven’t met in person; people like yourself on the interwebs help me keep my demons at bay.

  3. Lora says:

    I’m so sorry this is your burden to carry. I know someone who didn’t choose to live and I’m married to someone who decided to stay. When my husband told me last April he was thinking of hanging himself in our backyard I was beyond scared for him. Somehow he made it through and I hope that you can continue to make the same choice of life every day. I know you don’t know me but I would miss you if you left.

  4. Donna Jean (Greeneyezz) says:

    <3

  5. kapgar says:

    I’m glad you choose to save you. Long live the semicolon.

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